OklaDrought

BACKGROUND
Droughts are a recurrent feature of Oklahoma's climate, and agriculture is one of the largest sectors in the
state that is affected by drought events. Drought monitoring helps growers and policymakers make necessary
arrangements to reduce the impact of drought and provide them with sufficient time to implement the
contingency plans duly. Drought severity is computed using drought indices, which are based on
environmental data. According to the World Meteorological Organization, most of the drought indices do not
provide much-required accuracy and ease-of-use that hinders the planning efforts, thus increasing the
drought-related losses.
 

SUMMARY OF TECHNOLOGY
OSU researchers have developed a simple, yet rigorous drought index computing algorithm called Soil
Moisture Evapotranspiration Index (SMEI). SMEI computes the long-term anomalies of difference
between root zone soil moisture and evapotranspiration weekly and monthly based on Oklahoma
Mesonet data. These anomalies (SMEI values) are further categorized based on different drought
intensities. The system provides weekly and monthly timeline of drought magnitude from current and
past years for comparing the severity of drought with previous growing seasons.
 

POTENTIAL AREAS OF APPLICATION

• Ag-analytics companies can integrate this index with their user portal and weekly/monthly farmer
• reports
• Insurance companies can better assess the drought-induced crop damage by incorporating SMEI in their probabilistic models
• Crop drought sensitivity can be estimated with the help of crop-specific SMEI
• Future drought forecast can be made using long-term SMEI data from the past years
• Irrigation water requirement related estimates can be made statistically using SMEI
• Dryland growers can use SMEI and decide on the provision of supplemental irrigation
• A mobile app has been developed to inform growers to make informed decisions and improve their drought risk assessment by optimizing their inputs

MAIN ADVANTAGES

• Efficient than existing drought indices due to the use of in-situ sensor data
• No need for modeling soil moisture. Overall, less computationally extensive
• Data can be easily retrieved from Oklahoma Mesonet data archives
• Explain the drought condition to the users in simple categories
• Users can access the drought timeline for almost 120 Mesonet sites spread across Oklahoma
• Growers will have a higher trust in the index due to the reliability of data from the Oklahoma Mesonet
• Can help tech companies to establish grounds for future sales of weather and soil moisture sensors

HIGHLIGHTS

• Efficient than existing drought indices due to the use of in-situ sensor data
• No need to modeling soil moisture. Overall, less computational extensive
• Data can be easily retrieved from Oklahoma Mesonet data archives

STATE OF DEVELOPMENT

Fully developed